Cowabunga Shredhead!

Find out what happens when Shredder becomes Michelangelo.

And so it happened. Most of the 80’s and 90’s cartoons recently got a facelift to try to appeal them to a whole new crowd. Transformers, GI Joe and He-Man were pretty big names in my youth and they all made a comeback, with come more successful than others. It was only a matter of time before the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (I live in Europe where the word ninja was considered to be too violent) were back on TV. When it happened, it got mixed reactions. Some praised the series for being truer too the comics, others missed characters like Krang and Bebop and Rocksteady. I myself enjoy the new cartoon, but also like the old cartoon. Looking back at it, it’s a pretty goofy affair. We have heroes who spend more time making wisecracks than fighting the bad guys, really strange plots and possibly the two dumbest cartoon characters in history. Still, there’s no denying the fun and enjoyment the series provided so let’s look back at one of the more memorable episodes; the episode where Shredder goes nuts and thinks he’s Michelangelo.You might recall that Mikey always spoke “surfer” in this cartoon. Words like “bummer”, “bogus”, “dude” and of course “Cowabunga” were all part of his daily vocabulary. When he said it though, it seemed like the most normal thing in the world. Imagine Shredder saying these things. Seems pretty strange, eh? Now realize that Shredder’s voice is the voice of the Fresh Prince’s Uncle Phil and things become really interesting. Needless to say, this episode surely delivers on the voice department.

The show opens with Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello waiting for their pizzas to be ready. After 5 seconds, they’ve decided they have waited long enough. I can’t blame them since it’s a 20-minute show. When they look in the oven, it appears to be empty. Who could have taken their pizzas? And where do the Turtles get electricity or gas for their ovens from? They live somewhere in the sewers but apparently they have access to gas, electricity and even cable television. Of course it’s Michelangelo who has eaten all the pizzas and for some reason he’s lying in the kitchen cabinet, which isn’t a good place to hide considering you could go just about anywhere when you live in the sewers.Mikey tries to play innocent but the rest of the Turtles don’t buy it. They’ve had just about enough of his crap and go whine to master Splinter. He’s a “radical rat” according to the intro but he’s not exactly radical. He’s the least radical character of the show. Always thinking first and hating sudden changes, not exactly radical.. He suggests that he applies Kung Pow to Michelangelo which is just a fancy word for hypnosis. Now Splinter is one of the good guys, but he always looked evil and sadistic in this cartoon so I’m not surprised by Michelangelo’s scared reaction. Amazingly, Splinter’s bullshit works and he’s got Michelangelo hypnotised so he doesn’t want to eat pizza anymore. Well at least until the next episode, but you get the point.

Over to Dimension X. Dimension X was the Turtles equivalent of hell. It’s also the location of the Technodrome, the HQ of Shredder who just receives a special disk from Krang. Shredder promises Krang that at the end of the episode he can use the Turtles shells as hubcaps. Even Shredder is a comedian in this version. With that said, he’s of to some kind of lab on somewhere on Earth.Bebop and Rocksteady are already there, complaining that they have to clean everything and that they’re not housemaids, while Bebop wears a pink skirt.When Shredder arrives, the evil gang soon finds themselves in front of a giant computer. When turned on, the screen generates al kinds of lines which basically means it works. Must be a Mac I. When my PC shows those lines it’s either on fire or receives a hard disc crash. Shredder commands Rocksteady to insert the disk Shredder got from Krang. The computer makes a hologram of Michelangelo and the plan is revealed: Capture the real Michelangelo and let the fake hologram capture the other Turtles. A pretty shitty plan if you ask me. It may be a nice computer and a pretty accurate hologram but there’s no way it is able to project it al the way into the sewers. Oh well, at least it generates a classic Bebop and Rocksteady quote:

Now this is where it all goes bad. First Shredder commands Bebop to remove the disk from the computer but 5 seconds later he commands him to insert the disc again. Gently. Bebop puts the disc in backwards thinking “What could happen” and of course the computer goes haywire. It zaps al kinds of lasers and hits Shredder with one of them. Funny how Shredder always lets Bebop or Rocksteady do the important stuff even though they always screw it up.Since the disc was loaded with info about Michelangelo, Shredder now thinks he’s Michelangelo.

Back at the Turtles they’ve decided to order pizzas again. What happens next is unbelievable. Guess who decided to drop by and deliver a classic line?Seriously, I wouldn’t even believe that Uncle Phil would say something like that, let alone Shredder. Still, he did say it. He continues his speech with phrases like “mellow out, dudes” and “easy compadres”. Michelangelo gets aggravated because he’s got some serious competition now, but Splinter soon finds out that Shredder only thinks he’s Mikey. He plays a Kung Pow trick on Shredder and now every time Shredder hears the word Shredder he turns back to Shredder. When he hears the word Michelangelo he thinks he’s Michelangelo. They try to keep him in his role as Michelangelo until they know what his original plan was. A few seconds after the Kung Pow magic Shredder drops his disc while trying out the real Michelangelo’s cheapskate. Michelangelo has had enough of Shredder’s imitation crap and leaves while the rest of the Turtles investigate what’s on the disc.

While the three other Turtles investigate the disc, Michelangelo goes to a pizza place even though he realizes he doesn’t like pizza anymore. But wait. Who are looking around the corner? It’s Bebop and Rocksteady and they got some serious firepower to back them up.We switch back to the rest of the Turtles who have arrived in the Channel 6 building where their friend April works. Of course, the Turtles don’t want to get recognised so they all disguise themselves as Elmer Fudd. Really. Every time they have to disguise themselves, they putt on a stupid Elmer mask. What’s more, they all wear the same costume and mask. If you saw 4 Elmer Fudds walking down the street, coming from a big van with TURTLES on it, would you be suspicious? Exactly. Anyway, they found April. Shredder is still with them and immediately shows he’s smooth around the ladies:They discover Shredder’s plan and the actions switches once again and we’re back with the real Michelangelo in the pizza place. The dufus can’t choose which pizza he wants thanks to the ancient Kung Pow technique and five seconds later he’s joined by Bebop and Rocksteady.

Fortunately Michelangelo had ordered a soft drink and now squirts the drink into their eyes which of course triggers a chain reaction of laser shots. Then the unthinkable happens. Somehow Bebop and Rocksteady trick Michelangelo and trap him. Score one for the bad guys. You must feel pretty dumb when you’re tricked by those two.Raphael and Leonardo arrive a while later and when Shredder takes some cheese from a shredder he turns back to normal. He immediately whacks his green enemies from behind and puts them on some sort of pizza baking machine while laughing extremely evil. pic gevangen]Meanwhile Bebop and Rocksteady are dancing around Michelangelo while singing “We got us a Toitle”. Gotta love that song. This is by the way one of the few episodes in which they do something right. We all know they’re going to screw up later so let’s enjoy this brief time of victory for the bad guys.

Shredder arrives and is immediately contacted by Krang.Meanwhile Donatello and April discover phase 2 of Shredder’s plan. He wants to replace the president with a hologram. To activate phase 2 however, he needs the disc which is now in possession by Donatello. Raphael and Leonardo trick Shredder in freeing them by turning him back into Michelangelo. They want to know where Shredder’s master hologram thingy is so they turn him back into Shredder. When in Shredder mode, Shredder immediately gets stuck into a cartoon cliché; Raphael throws the disc to the part of the machine which has actual hands. Two pair of them who play catch with Shredder in the middle. Of course Shredder keeps running back and forth so the Turtles can escape. He eventually blasts the hands of the machine to kingdom come and runs towards the computer while being followed by the Turtles.

Shredder inputs the disc but doesn’t know that Donatello messed with it. The projector soon projects multiple Michelangelo’s and this triggers yet another classic Bebop and Rocksteady quote.Shredder asks them to stop but they keeping shooting and of course they hit the master computer. I told you they’d screw up. It’s just a matter of time. The turtles meanwhile free the real Michelangelo while Shredder removes the disc from the computer. The Turtles are ready for a scrap but Shredder has one more trick up his sleeve. His computer vaporizes Raphael’s Sai and creates a force field. Now I’m sure it’s a Mac.However, Shredder is still under hypnosis and the Turtles change him back again into his Michelangelo-mode en trick him into destroying the computer. Bebop and Rocksteady question Shredder’s sanity but while uttering his last Cowabunga Shredder gets hit again by a laser coming from the machine and regains sanity. Bebop and Rocksteady aren’t convinced however and believe Shredder’s a Toitle in disguise..They frantically try to remove the “disguise” while the computer explodes. Yup, a Mac alright. The Turtles run away while Bebop and Rocksteady throw Shredder in that drill-like vehicle and escape to Dimension X.Back at the sewers the Turtles once again eat pizza. Except for Mikey. Splinter quickly un-Kung Pows Michelangelo and defies the whole purpose of the episode in the first place.

All in all, this is one of the better episodes. That plot is pretty zany and hearing Shredder in Michelangelo’s slang is just too funny for words. Bebop and Rocksteady are also on a roll here with capturing Michelangelo and delivering a lot of their usual dumb lines and Splinter looks evil as ever.

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This is from vol. 4. Man every ep on that vol. sucked! Oh well, I used to love the show, and the intro is still awesome. One good thing about this ep was the music whenever Shredder started acting like Michelangelo. It's true what you said, they spend more time wise-cracking than fighting.

Most cable and electric lines run underground in major cities so it's possible that the Turtles "tapped" one of the lines and are getting illlegal cable and hydro for free....I think if Stan Lee were here I'd have just gotten a "No prise"!

Ray Combs: You know, I've done this show for six years, and this could be the first time that I had a person that actually got no points in Fast Money, and I think it's a damn fine way to go out. I thought I was a loser until you walked up here; you made me feel like a man. Something that should be built to la...